Many textile dyeing applications today utilize a continuous dyeing process; the woven textile goods, are printed with a printing paste composition containing dye, thickening agent and in the case of acid dyes, an acid or an acid salt to "fix" them into the textile fiber, and then are "aged" in a steamer, which cures the dye by treatment with hot (200.degree.-220.degree. F) steam. This steam treatment lasts for a few minutes up to about an hour. Optionally, the fabric can be printed, dried, and stored; then the stored fabric can be "aged" or steam-treated at the printer's convenience.
A problem of the prior art has been that the use of acids, such as formic or acetic, or acid generating salts, to fix the dye requires special handling procedures. Another problem is that some acids used in color fixation were incompatible with the thickening agent.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a novel thickening agent for printing compositions containing acid dyes, comprising sodium cellulose sulfate, alone, or in combination with other natural and synthetic gums. It is another object of this invention to provide an acid dye-containing printing paste which is stable, easily handled, and yet can be treated using normal equipment and techniques, with heated steam to fix the dye without addition of a separate acid-curing agent. These and other objects of the invention will become apparent upon further reading.